The true shepherd of his flock, the majesty of whose spiritual authority awed even the unscrupulous enemy.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Address, June 19, 1919, to the Belgian Parliament.
Wilson's tribute to a famous churchman, Cardinal Mercier, known for his defiance of the Germans. The quotation is from an extemporaneous speech.

Share this Quote:

The light that shined upon the summit now seems almost to shine at our feet.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Address in Rome (January 3, 1919).
On his triumphant post-armistice tour of Italy, Wilson was speaking for a passing mood of idealism and hope.

Would that we could do something, at once dignified and effective, to knock Mr. Bryan once and for all into a cocked hat.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Letter, August 29, 1907, to A.H. Joline. The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 17, p. 124, ed. Arthur S. Link.
Wilson was writing in private to a man who became part of the opposition on the Princeton board. Five years later the letter was released in the midst of the 1912 campaign. Many feared it would cost Wilson the Democratic nomination. Actually Bryan became one of his most effective supporters in the Baltimore convention.

Share this Quote:

I have come slowly into possession of such powers as I have ... I receive the opinions of my day. I do not conceive them. But I receive them into a vivid mind.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. From a "Confidential Journal," December 28, 1889. The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 6, p. 462, ed. Arthur S. Link.
Wilson was a young professor at Wesleyan University when he made this very just appraisal of his intellectual powers.

Share this Quote:

I have rather a strange objection to talking from the back platform of a train.... It changes too often. It moves around and shifts its ground too often. I like a platform that stays put.

What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Address at Mount Vernon (July 4, 1918).
In this one sentence Wilson summed up his war aims. His speech set up the Four Points in addition to the earlier Fourteen Points.

Share this Quote:

I believe in human liberty as I believe in the wine of life. There is no salvation for men in the pitiful condescension of industrial masters. Guardians have no place in a land of freemen.

We set this nation up ... to vindicate the rights of man. We did not name any differences between one race and another. We opened our gates to all the world and said: "Let all men who want to be free come to us and they will be welcome."